Will Russia Ever Become A Normal Country?

You can't really run this line when they're invading neighbours, engaging in mass murders of civilians and kidnapping children. Also they were signatories to multiple human rights agreements but have constantly violated them.

Nothing remains the same in the LONG TERM. Evenin geography/geology the earths plates move. Look at the climate and se levels/temperatures rising . And areas that were never flooded in recorded history got severely flooded this year.

So the same for politics , countries splitting etc. because of loads of precidences Russia will break up and will become ‘DIFFERENTLY NORMAL The three main questions coming out of this are :-

(1) what setup will cause the initiation of change?

(2) when will change happen/ begin to happen?

(3) what will the new norm be like?

a number of things - in isolation or a combination of them - could ignite the ‘Change’ such as :-

(1) change of leader

(2) how that change was brought about

(3) Georgia , Moldova getting their borders re established by removing Ru from their occupied lands. Note that Ru did ABSOLUTLY nothing to support Armenia recently, . I wonder why ? Was it too stretched with Ukraine occupying it?

(4) not all Ru think the same. There is a chasm between the ‘elderly’ and the ‘ young’ re where Ru should be going - especially with gears to , freedom , lifestyle, health and progress in general.

(5) the whole area of ICT is available to everybody globally including Ru, especially young Ru. The younger you are in Ru the more than likely you are to have a computer/ mobile phone or have a friend/neighbour who has. As they say knowledge/education is the only way forward. Would this access to ‘OTHeR KNOWLEDGE’ not get them to start thinking in ‘different ways’

(6) look at all the Ru that get involved in overseas business, buying soccer clubs in the UK ; buying up property in NORMAL Countries eg London in the Uk! . If Ru is such a Berger Motherland than any other country throughout the world , well why did they not stay at home - RU being a VAST country- and invest there. Is it because they saw some aspects of the lifestyle / business ethics in ‘normal’ countries that they liked and is not available in Ru

(7) Down trodden people eventually rise up , especially when they see a very significant % of the population living a VERY ELITICIST lifestyle.

(8 I could go on

What you are asking is will they become a modern Western country.

By the standards of most of the world they are open and liberal. Not saying much.

Someone had a good article pointing out that Russia is changing, but slowly.

Putin's Russia is a gentle place compared to the mind numbing savagery of the Soviet Union, post 1950s Russia was a brutal and murderous society, nothing compared to the Russia of 1917 to 1949, arguably the most evil and murdering society that ever or will ever exist.

Tldr: Yes, but but will it be this century, maybe not

Re 1917 so therefor they should not try again. That’s over 106 years ago and know how etc, etc, etc, etc, etc has MOVED ON since

Russia has always been a mess of a country but it's not the totalitarian hellhole some seem to think. It's a relatively free country to live in.

In relation to Putin, as bad as he is, his rule is benign compared to much of what went before.

After the Cold War Russia did liberalise and open up immediately. Unfortunately with Soviet societal architecture suddenly removed the immediate transition to the free market didn't go well for those who depended on the state and a lot of people fell in to brutal poverty literally overnight. The country went in to steep and chaotic decline before Putin was installed.

His contract was simple with people - you get stability, my friends get rich and in return he gets to be leader.

Russians want stability and that's what he gives them. The alternatives could be a lot worse.

For the west with Putin it's better the devil you know.

What Russia needs is a longer transition to western standards and the free market than what occurred immediately after the Cold War.

Julian Assange was a traitor and has no one to blame for how his life has gone but himself.

They've never known real freedom for centuries, what you never had, you don't miss.

Most of them outside of big cities are pretty ignorant, in the proper sense of the word. Vodka swilling rednecks, almost a mirror image of the U.S.

To paraphrase Mrs Doyle, maybe they like the repression just a little bit too.

I don't think it'll ever be normal in our lifetime, - normal in terms of rule of law and an elected parliament.

If Putin kicks the bucket, somebody else with similar ambitions will step in.

It's up to the west to keep the Russians engaged in the Ukraine, let the Russians bleed as much as possible, so that they don't have any other nasty ambitions, like the Balitcs or Poland. They'd be next and they'll know it.

Russia will be a threat to the West for the forseable future.

The problem I have with a Putin - Hitler comparison is that Putin does have nuclear weapons, Hitler didn't or nearly had.

Just like Nazi Germany the West would have to get rid of the whole Russian regime and treat Russia like it did with Germany in WW2. Have it occupied, and slowly return it to a democracy the likes of other countries.

The chances of that happening are very slim to none at all, most likely the latter.

Thus, Putin or not Russia will be a threat or some sort of threat for a long time to come, to some countries more, to some countries less.

I don't think Putin is interested in Portugal, ( however one never knows ) but he sure is interested in the Baltics and Poland.

Poland and the Baltics are NATO countries so that definitely won't be happening and with Polands massive military spending and modernisation program Poland won't be on the cards either for Russia ,but Russia might have to deal with the poles coming for them at some point in the future

If that happens at some future date, you can be sure that Ukraine will be right beside them., if it even gets that far. As Dudaev rightly said " Russia will disappear when the Ukrainian sun rises" And sunrise has occurred, now we wait while it completes its arc across the sky.

Do explain how he was a traitor? Suppose Snowden is a traitor also in your eyes?

By that logic, any journalist can be incarcerated without any due process for questioning the wrongdoings/war crimes of governments, quite an outrageously dangerous road to go down.

I suppose Jamal Khashoggi mutilation at the hands of the Saudi's was his own fault also?